Day 10: 10/1/13
We were all nice and stiff this morning! My head is all clogged too. I don't know if I'm getting a cold or if it was just really stuffy last night. The bus wasn't leaving until 9 this morning so it wasn't too bad.
We passed some interesting things today. First, there was a town that grows a lot of carrots as the volcanic soil is really good for them and they had a big massive statue of a carrot! We also passed through one of the main army bases which had some tanks and things in display. We passed by a railway bridge which was the site of the biggest ever rail disaster in New Zealand. It was in the 1800's late on Christmas Eve night. A volcano let out some water and gases that rolled down the mountain gathering stones and sticks and things and washed away the railway bridge. A farmer heard the noise and when he saw the train a few minutes later he tried to slow it down but it was too late. Two of the carriages went straight into the riverbank. There were over 170 people on the train and only around 50 survived. At the time the population was really small so most people knew someone on the train. As it was Christmas Eve, a lot of the wreckage was Christmas presents.
After that we went through another town where they have a gumboot throwing challenge. It's a worldwide event. There's a little fenced area where they do the competition. The current male titleholder is from New Zealand but the female titleholder is from Iceland!
We passed a town called Huntervillr which is where they first bred the Hunterway sheep dog which was bred especially for their loud bark which gets the sheep moving. Also, New Zealand was the first place in the world to give women a vote and at the time the mayor of Hunterville thought dogs should have a vote before women!!
We stopped at a place called Bulls for Lunch. They have given nicknames to lots of the things in the town- cafe = eat-a-bull, bin = responsi-bull and so on!
After lunch we had two hours to go to Wellington. I kept my eyes closed the whole way and tried to sleep and I think I must have a bit as the two hours flew by! It was around half two when we got to Wellington so we rushed in, checked in and headed to the city to see something.
A group of us went to see the cable car. It was like one carriage of a train really and had a track uphill. At the top there was a lookout over the city. It wasn't a clear day at all, it was really windy an raining on and off so the view wasn't great! The lookout was at the botanical gardens so we had a walk around there. There were nice flowers and things. There was an observatory, but you had to pay a load of money and we didn't really have enough time so we didn't go in. There was a treehouse but it was closed. So by then we decided to go back down before we got any wetter!!
We went to the Te Papa museum which was one of the main things that was recommended. We only had about an hour there. I went straight to the floor about the Maoris and the history of the people- British arriving and so on. There were lots of artefacts like tools and cloaks but you had to read an awful lot to find out about each one and an hour wasn't half enough time! I I'd see a Hawaiian cloak which was given by the Hawaiians to James Cook- that seemed significant. There were mock-up Maori maraes also. There was a lot of information too about people from other countries in the pacific coming to New Zealand. I had a few minutes on the second floor which was about nature and had a lot of information about earthquakes. A fault line runs right through New Zealand which is scary. There was a house you could stand in and there was a preyed earthquake- it was really moving a lot!
We had to race back to the hostel then as we were all meeting for dinner in about half an hour. Major knacker wash! I was trying to explain to an English girl what that was and they have something similar!
We went to a nice restaurant who made a long table for about 22 of us. The food was lovely and it wasn't that dear either. They remembered everyone's meal and had it all laid in order on the bill too- great service!!
Afterwards we came back to the hostel to meet the people that hadn't gone for dinner. There was a bar downstairs which we stayed in for a while. I didn't drink as I wanted an early night to make sure I didn't get sick. I felt better in the evening than I did in the morning but I still wanted to go to bed early. I thought it was better to miss one night than to get sick and ruin the trip altogether! I stayed there while they were in the hostel bar and there was plenty of dancing!
Earlier when I had come back from the museum someone had taken my bed- they had somehow put 7 people in a room for six. So I went to reception and they upgraded me to a female only floor and I ended up having a room to myself- so I had a great sleep!